


Surrender

by Piachichi



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst and Humor, Gen, Ghosts, Suicide, angsty beginning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-26
Updated: 2014-04-22
Packaged: 2018-01-02 17:47:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1059728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piachichi/pseuds/Piachichi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>„George, think about it. What does Peeves do if there's a locked door in front of him and he wants to enter?“</p>
<p>„Peeves doesn't need doors to enter, since he's a gho-..“</p>
<p>Fred laughed.</p>
<p>„Oh. Ah, well, then I suggest you try first.“</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

Everything was dark around him. He couldn’t feel any pain, he didn’t know if his surroundings were cold or hot, whether he was inside or outside - Was he alive? Had he died in the battle?

His head was empty. The only thing he knew for sure was that he was alone. He couldn’t hear, see, smell or feel another person. Where was his twin? Where was George? He was supposed to be there with him, wherever “there” was.

But wait.. Hadn't they been separated in the battle? Of course! He had been sent to protect a hallway with Percy. But what had happened then? The minister had been there. Yes, definitely. The minister had been there and then Percy had said he wanted to quit.. Or something like that. So, what had happened after that? He would’ve noticed if he'd died, right? Was he in a hospital? But where were the doctors?

Why couldn’t he see anything?

Fred was scared. Honestly, purely scared like he’d never been before. He wasn’t someone who was easily scared, he was brave and strong and optimistic. Normally, he would’ve laughed about being blind.

What scared him the most was that he was alone. Fred wasn’t used to being alone, he’d never been alone, there had always been someone beside him. George had always been beside him! So where was he? Had he left him? No way, no way, George was the last person to leave him on his own. Fred sighed, but no sound escaped him. He would just wait. He would wait for his twin - No matter how long he needed.

Suddenly there was a small light in front of him. He didn’t have time to wonder why he could see again until the light was right in front of him, only inches away from his face. It was shaped like a door, big enough for him to enter and it looked warm. Warm and comfortable, he wanted to feel more of it.

Fred realized that he had stretched his arm out to enter the door and hastily took it back. He wouldn’t leave the scary place he was in, he had decided to wait for George. And it was his final decision.

 

When they had been younger and his Mom had dared to take them out – she had always been worried to lose any of the children, but especially Fred and George – she had told them what to do in case they got lost. She had told them again and again.

“Always stay where you are! Stay where you are and wait until your Mommy or Daddy come to take you. Don’t go with anyone else, no matter what they tell or give you. Just wait.”

He could picture her face clearly. Strict and worried, but also smiling after they all nodded quietly. Their Mom was such a nice woman. Fred wondered where she was. He would just wait for her, too.

Slowly he brought more space between the door and himself, just in case it would try to eat him.. or something like that. He noticed that there were no walls around him, he retreated further and further until he stopped and looked around. The door was far enough away and he didn’t want to go too far, otherwise he could possibly miss George when he’d come and get him.

 

George was sitting at their – at _his_ – desk in the twins’ – in _his_ – room in the Burrow. He sorted through a stack of papers in front of him, tears in his eyes but he was smiling. There were three letters in front of him. With an easy spell, he set two of them on fire. The third stayed at the middle of the desk, next to some photos. The photos all showed him and Fred.

George sighed and decided that he wouldn’t need any of the papers about Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes and set all of them on fire without hesitating. The same happened to the essays on the far end of the desk. Everything burned up like the letters. Nobody needed their bad grades and useless school work anymore, they had quit Hogwarts anyway.

Without all the papers, the desk looked abnormally empty. There were just the letter, the photos and a big brown book. George looked at the book. Should he burn it, too? Keep it? Hide it? Bury it? Just leave it there for the others to read it? Yes, he decided. Then he took a piece of paper out of the overflowing bin and scribbled some names on it.

_To Mom, Dad, Bill and Lee. Others, keep your hands off this._

He nodded and looked around himself. The room was clean and tidied up like it hadn’t been ever since he could remember. He had gotten rid of all the inventions and finished products that were normally spread all over the floor. Nothing was left.

Their trunks were under the beds, school robes still inside of them. He had destroyed almost everything, all their personal belongings – At least those his family wouldn't be able sell to get some money or use for his siblings.

He hesitated before setting a big black notebook on fire, just like he had done to so many things before. Their ideas, their formulas, everything they had needed to produce and reproduce the products for the shop. No one would need those anymore.

Just when he decided that the room was perfect to leave it, he heard his mother calling his name from downstairs. Dinner. The thirty first dinner without Fred.

 

“George, darling, you look pale. Are you alright? Do you need anything?”, his mother greeted him with a worried expression. She looked tired and her eyes were red. Of course she had been crying again.

George didn’t answer her questions but sat down on his usual chair next to the free one. This felt horrible, but he didn’t care anymore. For once he smiled at the free chair and at his siblings and at his dad and at his Mom, at the big clock and at everything else. Really, he felt happy.

Bill and Fleur were there, too. Even Percy had come for dinner. George’s smile faded a little as he looked at the free chair where Charlie should sit. He was missing, that was bad. They should’ve all been together on this day.

“Here’s the soup. Ron, could you please hand this over to Fleur? Thanks, nice job. Here, this is yours. Ginny, I know you don’t like soup – Please take it anyway, perfect, wonderful. Percy, take this. Careful! Hot! Here’s yours, George. Oh, I forgot yours, Fre-..”, she stopped immediately and her eyes widened. Everyone looked at George with wide eyes, but he just smiled.

“That’s alright Mom. Just sit down.”

Everyone stared at him, but nobody said anything. Well, this wasn’t what they had expected. George sighed, “Just eat, everyone!”

Slowly they took their spoons and started eating, everyone glancing at George here and then and constantly exchanging worried looks with each other.

 

Dinner was soon over, nobody ever wanted to sit around the table longer than they had to. George went back upstairs into the twins’ room. He couldn’t bring himself to think of it as _his_ room.

He sat down at the desk and looked at the photo on top of all the others. Fred and George in their Quidditch robes, looking pretty excited. It had been taken in their fourth year at Hogwarts, right before a game against Slytherin. They had lost, but well – It had been fun anyway. Fred and George had never cared too much about winning, not as much as all the others. They had just liked the parties after they won.

He put the photos on top of the big brown book, next to the piece of paper with the names and took the letter in his hands once more. He didn’t dare to read it, but he knew exactly what it said. He had written almost the same letter, but that one was long gone. Burned. He needed to write a new one this night.

 

Three hours later almost everyone in the Burrow had gone to bed. Ginny sat on the floor in her room and wrote a letter to her boyfriend Harry while George sat on the floor in his room and wrote a letter to his whole family. He wanted to keep it short, he knew his Mom wouldn’t be able to read through it anyway. She would cry, but George tried not to think of it too much – He just had to be reckless and selfish, he knew how to do it. Maybe Fred had always been right and he was just too kind-hearted. It didn’t matter anymore.

Around him on the floor were several letters he had started but then stopped, thrown them away and started a new one. This was harder than he had expected. He wanted to have everything inside, there shouldn’t be a question left open. It was just so hard without knowing what the others would think and he felt like the biggest idiot out there. He felt evil, worse than any Death Eater could be.

Another two hours later George was the only one still awake in the Burrow. His letter was finished, lying on the desk next to the older one. George was sitting on Fred’s bed. What was he doing? He couldn’t bring himself to do it, he was a coward. He was so scared and he felt so bad about it. Fred hadn't had a choice and he had died laughing! Why couldn’t George do it? Well, of course Fred had always been the braver one, but they had still both been sorted into Gryffindor for a reason, right?!

He took a heavy breath and suddenly held it, shaking his head. If his family found him like this, they wouldn’t read the letters first. No way. They needed to know everything before that.

He stood up and took the envelopes (muggle ones, unsealed) and left the room. He brought the letters into the kitchen and dropped them onto the table. Right in the middle, were everyone would see them. Then he went back upstairs.

 

George knew many unnecessary and many helpful spells, but he didn’t know how to make a door stay shut until the person who wanted to enter had finished reading a letter. He wanted to make sure that they read them before they found him, but it seemed like he just had to trust his family to do what he told them to in his letter.

He couldn’t hesitate anymore, everything was prepared. He couldn’t live his life anymore because he had already destroyed everything. He had to finish it and he had planned everything. No struggling anymore, he told himself. He could almost see Fred laughing with his finger pointed at him, shouting ‘coward’.

He made himself comfortable in Fred’s bed, put the covers over himself and opened the small bottle with the silver liquid in it. It looked like veritaserum, but it was much more dangerous. It was the twins’ last invention and it hadn’t ever been tested before. George would test it on himself and if it worked it would be the last thing he'd ever test, drink or do.

With another deep intake of air and a nostalgic and nervous glance around the room, he drank the bottle in one large gulp. Then he let it disappear and rolled onto his side. He chose his most comfortable sleeping position – it was also Fred’s, had been theirs for as long as he could remember – and felt his eyelids dropping. He became tired, more and more tired with every second. There wasn’t much time left, but they would still be able to save him now. If they hurried, they could surely save him now!

He tried to open his eyes, but he was already too weak. He started panicking without being able to move his body, his heart tried beating faster but it couldn’t and then everything went black. He couldn’t leave with a smile like he planned, it was just so scary. He was too afraid.. 


	2. Chapter 2

On the next morning Ron was the first one to wake up. Normally he was the last one, it was only around 6 AM and he could see the sun rising. He got up slowly and left his room. Instead of going into the bathroom, he went straight to the kitchen. Who needed to brush their teeth if they were hungry? And Ron was always very hungry in the morning.

He entered the kitchen and looked out of the window. Preparing food was exhausting. He was lazy.  
Ron sat on his usual place and was about to fall asleep again on the table when he saw something white on the brown wood. What was that? The owl shouldn’t have been there already. He stretched his arm to grab whatever it was. Two letters. He needed about twice as long as normally until he realized what they said.

_To Mom, Dad, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Ron and Ginny_ and _To Mom, Dad, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Ron, Ginny and Fleur_.

The handwriting was the same, or if it wasn't the same it was at least very similar. Ron hesitated, but then he opened the first one – the one without 'Fleur' – since it was addressed to him, too.

His eyes flew over the lines without really reading them and stopped at the end of the letter. Then he jumped up and ran to the stairs.

“MOM, DAD, COME HERE! THERE'S A LETTER FROM FRED IN THE KITCHEN!”, he screamed at the top of his lungs and then ran back to the table. Before he could start reading it, his Mom came in and ripped it out of his hands. She wore a white night robe and held the paper with shaking hands, his dad following shortly after her, wearing a morning robe over his pyjamas.

“There's another one..”, Ron whispered and handed it to his father. While he opened it, hands shaking not as much as his mother's, Ginny and Percy came downstairs. Both looked at the letters with wide eyes and then stared at Ron.

“I don't know what they say, I didn't read them!”, he explained. He was nervous and couldn't stand still while he watched his mother’s eyes widen and fill with tears. Then his father cried out and ran to the stairs, climbing them as fast as he could. Ron turned to his mother who released the letter and ran after her husband.

A few seconds later all three siblings could hear her screaming. First they didn't understand what it meant, but then they looked at each other at the same time, eyes widening and ran upstairs, too. Their mother had screamed George's name, there was no mistaking it.

They made it up to the twins' room, but their father was standing in the door frame, not letting them look inside or enter.

“Floo Bill and call him here, tell him to bring Charlie, too. Go together and don't read those letters until your mother and I have finished them. Go now!”, he told them hurriedly. He looked sickly pale and sweaty. Percy, Ron and Ginny ran back downstairs to go fetch their brothers.

At the same time Molly sat at her son's side, her arms hugging him recklessly and she seemed to cry hysterically.

“George, darling.. Wake up, please! You can't leave now, not now, not you, too.. Please just wake up and tell me that this is a joke.. Georgie, George!”, she whispered.

Arthur, now sure that his younger children wouldn't get into their brothers' room, sat down beside her and put his arms around her. His eyes filled with tears as he looked at his son's unmoving body. He was cuddled up in the blanket, eyes closed. This was how they had always found their twins when they came to wake them up. This was how Fred and George had always slept. How could George do this to them? How could he leave his family to mourn about him, after they had just lost another son? How could he do this to his mother?

Molly began stroking George's hair with shaking hands, patting his face like she used to do when he was a baby. She kissed his forehead, although he had never liked that.

Arthur looked at them and covered his eyes with his hands. No. This wasn't true. This war couldn't have cost another life, another innocent soul and another one of his children. Of his little, happy children. The war had already destroyed his family, he hadn't seen anyone break a vase while playfully fighting or hurt their knees while running up the stairs or even just laughing for months. How had the war gotten through to his children? He hadn't protected them enough.

Just as he took his hands from his eyes he could hear footsteps running up the stairs. He didn't have the strength to stop them from entering the room. He could hear his daughter's cry when she saw her Mom leaning over George and a second later his oldest son was sitting by his side, looking at his brother with a blank expression.

Ginny ran out of the room without another glance at George.

  
It had been the second worst day in Molly Weasley's life. The worst had been the day her son Fred had died, along with so many others. Now her son George had died, too, all alone in his room in his brother's bed. And nobody had noticed. Everyone had thought he could handle it, but obviously they had been wrong. Why hadn't they watched him more closely? Why hadn't they helped him more?

It had been two weeks since her husband had found their son dead in his room. Two weeks since their youngest son had found a letter addressed to all of them, written by Fred, who had already been dead. Two weeks in which Molly Weasley hadn't been herself.

It had also been one week since the funeral of Fred and George, of the popular and well-known Weasley twins. They had a grave together, of course. They had wanted to have a grave together, she had read it in their letters. It was the most beautiful grave she had ever seen. All her twins' fans had brought flowers. She was sure that they would've liked it, although of course they would've never admitted it.

The letters lay on her bedside table, next to a big brown book with _Gred & Forge_ engraved into it. She wondered where they could have gotten it from.

Then she took the letters. It had become sort of a habit to read them before she went to sleep. It wasn't good, Arthur had told her many times, but she had to read them again and again. It seemed as if George had destroyed everything that reminded them of the twins. The only things he had left were some photos, the letters and the brown book. Molly hadn't dared to open it yet, she was too afraid what she would find inside.

Two days after George's death Bill had went to the twins' shop and came back with shocking news. The building had already been sold to another owner and nothing reminded of the joke shop that had once been in it. Only a stone next to the building was evidence that there really had been a Weasley's Wizard Wheezes in Diagon Alley. The stone had the shop's name engraved in it, surrounded by fireworks that moved all the time. Molly wondered how long they would do this since the one who used the spell on the stone was most likely already dead.

People also used the stone next to the shop to lay down more flowers for the twins. They had been really popular and Molly was so proud to be able to say that they were _her_ sons. Her babies.

  
_Dear Mom, Dad, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Ron and Ginny,_

_if you read this letter I am already dead. I can't believe that I am and it feels weird to write this since I'm still alive._   
_I'm writing this just in case I die in the battle. We don't know when it's going to start, so we have to make arrangements, right? Sorry to worry you or to remind you that I am gone. Maybe you already feel better after a month without me._

  
_There are some things I want everyone to know. I really love all of you and it feels weird to write “I” instead of “we”, too, but George is writing his own letter at the moment. We don't know which of us will die - or maybe both of us? Or neither of us? - so we're both doing it. I know that he won't read this letter even after I die, so I'll tell you: I can't imagine continuing to live in case he dies. So if he should die in the battle, then most likely I will follow him. (If I already did, sorry to be so harsh! Now it's getting really weird!)_   
_Let me explain something. George and I made a deal, in case one of us dies and the other one survives - Why should that even happen? We won't be separated. If we were indeed separated, then please don't feel guilty now, it seems like we were okay with it then. (What the hell?! What would we do that for?)_

  
_So, our deal was:_

  
_If one of us dies, then the other one must not follow him right away. The time limit is one month. After one month, the remaining one will know if he can handle life without the other. If he can do it, then it is great and he should go on with it - Neither of us would want the other one to throw his life away if he doesn't have to. If the remaining one can't handle living alone, then he will follow. Therefore we prepared our last invention before the battle. It helps us to leave this life in a peaceful way, we will just fall asleep and never wake up again._

  
_It seems like George couldn't handle it and that's alright. Don't start with the “Fred wouldn't want you to!”-crap, because I only want George to be happy. (If you DID say that then please don't feel guilty now. I guess that's just natural to say.) I can understand that he wants to be with me because I imagine it would be the same if he died._

  
_You know, it seems like we had our chance to rule the world and it didn't work. Now we have a new chance and as soon as we're back together, we'll be the rulers of hell!_

  
_Many years from now, you all of you will join us and then we'll already have our own huge kingdom where you can have a nice afterlife-life with us._

_Don't cry anymore and don't call your (grand)children “Fred” or “George”!_

_See you in many, many years_

  
_Yours, Fred_

_Ps. Write something cool on our grave, alright?!_

Molly wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her night robe. It was easy to say, “Don't cry anymore”, Fred hadn't known how hard it was. Of course he hadn't. She was glad he never had to experience something like that.

But this letter always made her feel better, no matter how often she read it. After her other children and her husband had finished reading, she had made sure that it was her letter. Since then, she was the only one allowed to read it.

  
_Dear Mom, Dad, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Ron, Ginny and Fleur,_

_Right now you're all sleeping and I'll be sleeping forever soon. Fred and I will rule the afterlife, I'm pretty sure of it._

  
_It is so hard to live after one half of you died and I hope you understand that I just couldn't go on with this life. It's better to die than to live as half a person._

  
_Fred told you about our deal and I made it for one month. I couldn't handle it, but please don't blame yourselves. You were awesome and if he hadn't been my twin I could've handled it with your help._

  
_Bill and Fleur, I hope your baby will only hear the best stories about his or her uncles Fred and George and don't name your children after us, any of you!_

  
_I burned all our stuff so you can use the room. Guess it's easier like that. Sorry that I chose it as a place to fall asleep, but it's not that bad actually. I'm just telling you: We'll be happy in the afterlife, really! So have fun and live long, long lives with many, many Weasley grandchildren with red hair and send them all to Hogwarts. Maybe one day every student in Hogwarts will be kind of related to each other through our family! Well, hopefully not all the Slytherins.._

_Won’t see you in a long, long time_

  
_Yours, George_


	3. Chapter 3

Fred still didn’t want to move. He sat in the nothingness, far away from the comforting warmth of the door and waited. He didn’t know how long he had been waiting, maybe it had been hours or weeks already, maybe even years. He couldn’t tell. Nothing ever changed in this nothingness, he couldn’t even tell if his surroundings were black or white, he just knew that the door was out of light. And it seemed to get weaker and weaker with every moment. He didn’t care. He would wait for George no matter what that door did.

  
George woke up slowly. He felt as if he had been sleeping for years, he felt light and comfortable. He couldn’t open his eyes, but that was alright. He knew that Fred wasn’t there, so why should he try to see? What would he see? The world maybe? Well, he had wanted to die, so the world didn’t matter to him. Had he failed at killing himself? That would be pretty pathetic even for him.

He stayed still for an eternity. He didn’t hear, see or feel anything, so there was no reason to get up, but after this eternity he suddenly saw light. In this creepy place around him there was a light coming nearer and nearer until it was right in front of him, almost touching his nose. George got up on his feet as fast as he could and backed away. What the hell was that thing? A door?

Well, George didn’t really feel like going through a door. Maybe behind it was his way into heaven, but Fred and him had always wanted to go to hell and rule over all the evil creatures there. Why would a door to heaven open in front of him? Had Fred maybe entered? After a long time in this creepy place he was in, would he enter the door into an unknown but obviously warm and nice room?

As far as he could imagine, Fred wouldn’t enter and George knew Fred very, very well.

  
Fred watched the door closer. Now it didn’t seem like it was disappearing anymore, it was just backing away from him. What the hell?!

Fred got up and followed the door slowly. Maybe it wanted to show him something, or maybe another person had died and the door had to open for them. Then Fred wouldn’t be alone anymore which sounded pretty good. He was sure that the nothingness would make him mad if he was alone in it for too long.

He noticed that the door moved faster and he had to run to keep up with it. He didn’t want to lose sight of it now. He would never find his way back alone, so he had to hope that there was another person waiting for the door.

The door got even faster and although Fred ran and ran and didn’t stop once, he wasn’t out of breath or hurting or the littlest bit exhausted. He felt like he didn’t need to breathe at all, and his heartbeat stayed the same - did he even have one?

But now was not the time to check his heartbeat, since the door was moving fast enough to make Fred lose sight of it slowly. He had to reach it before it disappeared completely.

After an eternity of running it seemed as if the light got bigger again, so maybe the door had stopped. Now Fred could only hope that the person in front of it didn’t enter right away, he wanted to have a talk first.

  
George sat down and kept his eyes on the door. He stayed near it because it made him comfortable, it seemed so peaceful - He felt as if he was drunk after too much fire whiskey, but that was alright. He just had to stay near that door and everything was alright.

Then there was another movement behind the door. He was a little too dizzy to notice what it was exactly, but he didn’t mind either. If he just stayed near that door everything would be alright. Nice, really nice and warm and wonderful..

  
Fred had arrived. The door was as big as it had been when it had first appeared in front of him and now he only needed to look at whoever was behind it. If there was someone at all. With a long sigh, he surrounded the door and suddenly froze. He stood still and stared and then - with a loud cry - fell onto his brother and hugged him as tight as he could. George seemed to fall out of a trance or something because when he touched him, he jumped a little and stared at him until his expression lit up and he threw his arms around Fred.

“This isn’t possible! How can this be real? How can you? I thought I was dead, man!”, Fred shouted, still lying on top of his twin.

“Well, you are dead, mate. But we had a deal, so I left you alone for a month and now here I am!”, George said happily.

Fred looked puzzled for a moment and then his eyes widened, “You killed yourself? No way! No way in hell, not because of me.. George, tell me you didn’t kill yourself because of _me_!”

“Well, that was the deal. You knew it was likely.”

Fred just nodded and stayed still for a moment, then he smiled again. He got up on his feet and pulled George with him, “Okay. I’m kind of relieved because there’s nothing here, absolutely nothing. I’m sure, if you’d have waited for some years, I would’ve gone mad. Although it didn’t feel like a month, maybe some days. But not more.”

George only laughed and couldn’t keep his eyes from his twin. He couldn't really believe that this was death, that he would actually be able to spend eternity together with Fred.

“Hm, I kind of wish we were in Hogwarts now. I mean, I’m not hungry. It seems like you can’t get hungry in here, but I would love to taste some nice food now. Hmmm, that would be great,” Fred sighed.

“Yeah, Hogwarts would be great. I want to go there again anyway, do you think we will ever be able? .. Oh well, that’s a dumb question, right?”

“No George, no, I think it’s not really dumb. Just look! Look at this!”, Fred pointed around them.

The nothingness was slowly changing into something that looked like the Great Hall. They were looking down into Hogwarts, all the students and the teachers underneath them.. It looked so real.

“Look, there’s Ginny! It has to be her!”, Fred shouted and stared at the Gryffindor table. George turned his head and searched for his little sister. There she sat, looking really sad and pale and nobody was talking to her.

“She looks so down,” Fred said, “Is that because now we’re both gone now?”

“Can't think of another reason. Must be hard to lose two brothers. Do you think we can talk to her? Let’s just try, right?”

Fred nodded and they tried to get down, to their sister and the other students. To their surprise, it seemed to work. They were able to sink until they kind of stood on top of the table in the middle of the Gryffindor students' food. What surprised them even more was that nobody seemed to mind. They just went on with their eating.

“Yo Ginny! How’re you?”, Fred greeted the girl, “Don’t look so down, it’s alright now, isn’t it?!”

Nothing happened.

“Ginny Weasley, will you stop ignoring your big brother? Although he left you? Man, I didn’t plan that, right?!”, Fred tried to shake her shoulders but his hands went right through them and he pulled them back, horrified.

“What the hell? What does this mean? Are we, like, ghosts or something? But why can’t she see us? What the hell? What the damn, damn, damn hell does that mean?”, Fred turned around to face his twin who had the same expression and looked around the mass of students. Nobody seemed to notice them.

“If we’re ghosts, then the ghosts must see us. There’s just no way that ghosts can overlook other ghosts,” George said and went straight to the Nearly Headless Nick, who was sitting in between some second years and joking with them.

“Nick!”, George shouted, “Nick! Can you hear me? See me? Sense me? Whatever, do you know that I am here?”

Nick looked in his direction for a moment, surprised and confused, but it seemed like he couldn’t see him. He shook his head and turned back to the student beside him.

“Damn, seems like he knows we’re there, but can’t really see or hear us. Anyway, better than nothing. Maybe this will get better after some time,” Fred shrugged.

The nothingness around them was completely gone now and they didn’t really know what to do, so they went to the teacher’s desk to listen to their conversations. Well, ‘going’ was not exactly right, they were really just ‘floating’ which was pretty hard.

“I guess we’ll need some practise until we can move as fast as Peeves, right?”, Fred commented this. It annoyed him that he was so slow.

“Hey, we fit in here pretty well, don’t we?”

“Why?”, Fred asked confused, “I thought they were all alive and able to see each other?!”

“No, I don’t mean that,” George said, “I mean the clothes. We’re wearing our school robes. Why do we do that? I thought I died in my pyjamas and you were wearing the shop uniform, right?”

Fred looked at his outfit for a moment and then at his twin's identical one. He nodded confused, “I didn’t wear this back in the nothingness. I’m pretty sure I was wearing the stuff I died in.”

George tried to remember what he had been wearing in that creepy place, but he guessed it didn’t matter much, “Seems like our outfits change to match with the surroundings.”

“Maybe it was because we wanted to come here to eat. Only students or teachers can eat in here and since we never were teachers in Hogwarts, we were dressed up as students again. Clever, right?!”, Fred considered.

“Sounds possible, but then Death must be really clever to do this with everyone who dies. Maybe those clothes are just our imagination,” George doubted that there really was someone who dressed up the dead people up so they matched the placed they wanted to visit although nobody could see them.

“Wait a moment.. What’s with your ear?”, Fred called and pointed at George’s head.

“Well, that’s nothing new. It’s been gone for some time now, hasn’t it?!”

“Yeah, that’s it - It’s not gone anymore! I mean, it’s there. It looks as good as new,” Fred exclaimed, “That’s rather awesome.”

“It’s there? Wicked!“, George touched the side of his head and his grin widened as he noticed that the ear was really back where it belonged, “So maybe that’s really our imagination. Or how we wanted to look when we came here.. Although I didn’t really think about it. Did you?”

“Nope, but I guess that’s what we feel most comfortable in. _School_ robes, who would've guessed,” Fred grinned.


	4. Chapter 4

They turned their attention back to the teachers' table in front of them. Until now, none of the teachers had said a word. It seemed like they were in the same mood as Ginny. Fred shook his head and looked annoyed.

“For once you can listen to them talk, and they don't say anything. That's pissing me off right now, you know?”, he complained. George grinned. They had always tried to listen to the teachers' conversations when they had been students. They had even considered learning to read lips just to understand what they were talking about. In the end, they never did it and they were never able to listen to them.

“Let's check the dormitories. I wonder who's got our room”, George suggested to light up his brother's mood. Fred nodded and tried to float to the doors. He had problems to keep his direction. George seemed to be a natural in floating, he went straight through the hall and waited at the doors, watching Fred with a wide grin.

After some moments, Fred reached him and folded his arms. George shrugged and grabbed his arm, then he floated upstairs to the Gryffindor dorms. Fred didn't seem very happy to be dragged along but this was way faster than trying on his own.

When they reached the Fat Lady, the portrait wasn't able to see them, either. It wasn’t really surprising because the other portraits in the hallways hadn't shown any reaction to them, but it was pretty disappointing.

“So, she can't hear us and we don't know the password. How do we enter?”, George asked. They hadn't thought about this earlier, he noticed, rolling his eyes.

„We're ghosts, remember? If we're real ghosts, then we should be able to enter it anyway, right?“, Fred grinned. George gave him a confused look.

„George, think about it. What does Peeves do if there's a locked door in front of him and he wants to enter?“

„Peeves doesn't need doors to enter, since he's a gho-..“, Fred laughed, „Oh. Ah well, then I suggest you try first“, George said, blushing a little.

„Alright then, but don't laugh if I crash into the wall and it doesn't work“, Fred said, „This is a little creepy. I wonder what it feels like. But actually.. Grabbing through Ginny's body didn't feel weird.“

„But it sounds weird!“, George mumbled.

„Well, then I'll leave now. See you inside, right?!“, Fred waved, smiling a little.

„Just go already!“

„Alright, alright“, Fred floated towards the wall, although he had to correct his direction once - floating was really hard - and after hesitating a little, he slipped through the wall head-first. George watched him a little stunned and stood still in the air. Then Fred's head appeared through the wall once again, saying: „This is so much fun! Didn't feel anything, come in now!“

He disappeared again.

George sighed and floated through the wall himself, although he did it with his hands first. Fred was right, he couldn't feel anything, it was as if there was no wall at all.

Then they were inside the Gryffindor Common Room. It looked exactly like it had looked three years ago, when they had last entered it.

“I will try something”, Fred announced and floated towards the fireplace. George wondered if that was where he had wanted to go, since there wasn't really anything interesting around it, but then Fred just floated headfirst into the fire. George's eyes widened with shock, but Fred came back out of the flames without a scratch or burn.

“Have you lost your mind? Couldn't you first use your hand instead of your head?”, George called.

“Georgie, I think nothing can harm us anymore”, Fred said calmly.

“Oh, I think I can still harm you, you idiot!”, George shouted and hit his twin on the head.

“Ouch!”, Fred shouted back and rubbed his head, “This really works. That's cool. Would've been boring without being able to slap you here and then, right?”, he grinned.

“Yeah, totally.”

George floated upstairs and into the room he had once lived in for more than six years. It still looked the same, but of course there were some things missing and some things that didn't really fit in.

“Who put a pot of flowers in here? This isn't a girls' dorm! Pathetic!”, Fred complained, “And what is this? Eeewww, worn underwear. Nice manners, this little guy, really.”

“Ah, seems to be first or second years. These robes are really small”, George said, ignoring Fred's complaints.

“Should be third years, considering it's been three years, shouldn't it? And I wonder if there were even worse guys in here before we came. And we never really cleaned this place, eww..”, Fred mumbled.

“The elves do that, remember?”

“Oh yeah. Then it was always clean in here, right?”

“Yep”, George assured him, “They cleaned it every day.”

“Right, they told us while we were in the kitchens”, Fred remembered.

  
After some minutes their old room got boring because they couldn't touch anything. Fred had tried to throw the flowers to the floor at least ten times, but it just wouldn't work, so his mood wasn't the best when they left.

“If we could touch anything, then we could annoy the hell out of Peeves, right?”

George nodded, “But we can't. And he wouldn't even see us and that would be really boring.”

Fred nodded, too, “But maybe it will get better. And then we'll be the poltergeists of Hogwarts and Peeves can pack his bags.”

“You want to stay here for always and eternity?”, George asked, “That would be depressing, wouldn't it? We won't age, but our family will. They will all.. die.”

Fred bit his lip, but then he smiled softly, “I think we shouldn't think about that now, Georgie. It will get us depressed and we've only been dead for some days, not years. We'll think about not aging when our next birthday nears, alright?”

George shrugged, thinking about Ginny with grey hair and about watching their little siblings' grand- and great-grandchildren visit Hogwarts. Their next birthday wasn't very far away.. Maybe they should have just entered heaven. Harry had once told them about it, hadn't he?

“Fred, didn't Harry once say that he'd never want to be a ghost? That he would go on to, like, I don't know - Heaven? Or hell maybe, in our case? He said that becoming a ghost is awful, didn't he?”

“I don’t know. Yeah, he said something like that and then we said that we'll rule hell. Don't worry, we will rule hell. We just have to find our way out of here, right?”, Fred answered.

“I think we had our chance, Fred. I think that door, that light thing was heaven. No clue why they would put us into heaven and not hell, but I guess it was the same with being in Gryffindor and not Slytherin. I think that door was our ticket to go further, but we wanted Hogwarts. Don't you think that we will be forced to stay like this forever?”

Fred looked at him and George regretted telling him his worries, he actually looked really scared. George hated to see his twin scared, because it just wasn't Fred's style to be scared. He was the brave one.

“I think that watching people forever without being able to talk to them or touch anything.. That this is hell. Do you think that we not only missed the ticket to heaven, but entered hell instead because we didn't go through that door? Is this our personal hell?”, Fred asked quietly.

George thought about it for a moment, but then he shook his head, “That can't be. If they'd put us into our personal hell, then they would have separated us, right? This can't be hell, this is just our own decision. We chose this instead of Heaven.”

Fred looked at him for a moment, then he grinned, “This sounds so like us, George. We chose the food in Hogwarts instead of Heaven, this is like.. Really wicked.”

George grinned, too. They were such idiots. Being in a nothingness like before and the only thing they worried about was the food in Hogwarts. Well, that would haunt them forever, obviously.

While they were talking, they had forgotten to watch where they were floating. Now they were at the other side of the school, it seemed like they had slided through some walls on their way. It was kind of funny how fast they were moving through the castle like this.

Then they heard a loud noise behind them and turned around. One of the suits of armor had fallen apart and now the parts lay on the floor in front of them. Above it in the air was Peeves, the poltergeist. He stared at them with a confused and even a little scared look. Fred and George looked at each other and then behind them. There was nothing there, so was Peeves really staring at them? Not through them?

“Can he see us?”, Fred asked excited and floated closer to Peeve, who backed away slowly.

“What do you want? What's that? How can you be ghosts? How can that be?”, he asked confused.

“So, Peeves, can you see us? And hear us?”, George asked calmly.

The poltergeist nodded slowly, “Of course! Obviously! Now how can that be?”

“We obviously died. And Heaven didn't sound so great, so we chose Hogwarts instead. We're just waiting until we can touch stuff again. Seems to need some time, but now we're finally visible. That's a great step forward, right?” Fred explained and looked at his twin, who didn't look as calm anymore.

“Right. Peeves can see us, but can others, too? We should try it. Maybe Peeves is an exception.”

“What happened to you? Be a little more optimistic, George! Of course it will work. We'll check it out now”, Fred said and tried to push Peeves away, but his hand slid right through him. Peeves hurried away from them and floated around the next corner.

“Alright, I can't touch Peeves. Whatever”, Fred shrugged, but he didn't look as confident anymore.

George nodded and they floated away slowly, in the direction of the Great Hall. As they got closer, they could hear students on the corridors.

“Guess they've finished eating. Let's head to the Gryffindor dorms instead, alright?”, Fred suggested.

George nodded and they changed their direction quietly. Of course they were faster than the students and entered the common room, staying right in the middle opposite the entrance. They were both nervous, but tried to hide it, so they looked in different directions. George kept his eyes on the fireplace while Fred looked at the books spread out on one of the tables. He couldn't read the titles, but he wasn't interested anyway.


	5. Chapter 5

A while later, they heard the first students coming closer. They were talking excitedly and after a few moments the hole in the wall opened and the first group – some boys that looked like third-years (Maybe the new inhabitants of their dorm!) – entered. They walked straight through the twins, who were still floating in the middle of the room. They didn’t even notice that they had touched the ghosts, although it was common knowledge that people should normally feel it.

  
Fred and George looked at each other with hopeless expressions. It really seemed like Peeves was the only one who could see them. Why did it have to be Peeves? They couldn’t even let him send messages to their family, he would definitely make everything worse.

  
“What are we supposed to do now?”, George asked quietly. He wanted to sit down in one of the armchairs and relax, like they had used to do when they were younger. He tried it, but the feeling of floating didn’t change and he looked quite pathetic, too.

  
“Don’t know. Let’s just wait for another while. I mean, what else can we do? I’m sure Peeves will tell someone that he saw us at some point”, Fred answered, shrugging, “But they probably won’t believe him. I wouldn’t believe him, either. Would you?”

  
George shook his head, “Nope, I wouldn’t believe a word Peeves says. But I’m worried that Ginny might not take it too well if Peeves talks about us like that. Our deaths seem to be hard on her”, George looked at their little sister who was sitting alone in an armchair near the fireplace, just staring at nothing.

  
“I want to talk to her”, Fred said, “And tell her that she acts like a weakling.”

  
George looked at him for a moment, then nodded, “That would make her feel better. I would add that she acts like a girly girl. She hates that. Well, at least she hated that when she was six.”

  
Fred grinned, “I would tell her that she’s worse than Fleur. You know she doesn’t like her, right?”

  
“Yes, I would tell her that Harry likes himself a strong girl. He has quite weak nerves himself, he needs someone to protect him”, George added.

  
“Pathetic!”, they said together and laughed.

 

A few hours later, Ginny was the last to go upstairs to bed. The twins couldn’t tell what time it was because there was no clock in the common room and they had already lost their feeling of time. It seemed like it was going by tortuously slow. Now that everyone was asleep, they didn’t really have anything to do, so they left the Gryffindor tower and wandered through the hallways without a destination.

  
“We could go to the kitchens. Maybe the elves can see us?”, Fred suggested.

  
“Worth a try. We don’t have anything to lose anyway”, George said. So they floated towards the painting that marked the entrance to the kitchens.

  
“By the way, what happened to Hogwarts? It’s all repaired again after some days? Or well, some weeks?”, Fred asked confused.

  
“These are wizards and witches, they’re able to do that, Fred”, George said, disinterested.

  
“You’re in a bad mood. Don’t let this get to you, they will be able to see us some day. We just have to wait. Maybe it’s just a few more days, alright?”, Fred tried.

  
“I’m not in a bad mood, but I feel weird because it’s night and I’m not tired or hungry or anything. I just don’t feel human anymore. You must’ve been through that, too”, George explained.

  
“Oh well, I had that phase, yes. But you know, I’ve been dead a month longer than you, so I’m actually already used to it.”

  
George nodded, “I hope I will be, too, soon.”

 

“Mrs. Norris, did you sense students in the hallways? Students out? Yes? Where? Show them to me!”, they suddenly heard a voice.

  
Out of habit they tried to hide themselves until they realized that Filch wouldn’t be able to see them. Besides, they weren’t even students anymore!

  
Then they saw him, who had been their second ‘friend’ in Hogwarts – after Lee – and who had caught them out of their beds during their first night and from there on almost every night until they had finally found the Marauders' Map. The sight had something familiar and calming, although it felt creepy that he couldn’t see them.

  
“Someone with an invisibility cloak again, Mrs. Norris? Can you still sense them?”, Filch asked quietly, watching his surroundings.

  
And suddenly there was a loud noise again and another suit of armor fell apart. Peeves floated towards Filch, but he stopped halfway across the corridor as he saw the twins next to the caretaker.

  
“There they are again! The Weasel-twins! How can they be ghosts?”, he screeched and backed away.

  
Filch followed his gaze and looked in their direction. Fred waved, grinning. Peeves seemed really scared of them, maybe because he was the only one who was able to see them.  
“You’re making fun of me again, Peeves, but I assure you that the headmaster will hear about this. Speaking about the dead like that, the headmaster won’t like that, the headmaster will get rid of you faster than you can say ‘Weasley-twins’ again”, Filch ranted and turned his back to Peeves.

  
That was a big mistake, as Fred and George knew way too well. Now Filch had some parts of the armor thrown at his back. Well, who was dumb enough to turn his back to Peeves? After so many years? Fred rolled his eyes and George smiled a little.

  
“Tell the headmaster about the intruders! The Weasley-twins are ghosts and they are in here, how can that be? How can it be?”, Peeves shouted and threw the pieces of armor in the twins’ direction. Out of habit, they ducked and tried to evade the parts, but it didn’t feel different if they hit them.

  
Filch was very upset, they realized, and he hurried away while mumbling something about “the dead” and “badmouthing”. Fred and George looked at each other, a bit confused.

  
“Do you think he liked us enough to care about how they talk about us now that we’re dead?”, Fred asked.

  
“Seemed like he does. Nice of him, isn’t it?”, George answered and they laughed again.

  
“Hey, wait, how can that be?”, Peeves interrupted, still staring at them with wide eyes. Even wider than they were normally.

  
“Well Peeves, our friend, we would love to tell you how this can be, if only we knew that ourselves. But since you’re a ghost, maybe you can tell us if it is normal that nobody can see us? Will it become better?”, George asked, trying a friendly tone.

  
“What? A ghost? Are you calling the great Peeves a ghost?”, Peeves shouted, and he didn’t look friendly at all.

  
“Sorry man, but since you’re a poltergeist and that’s just about the same thing–”

  
“No, no, no! How can you? How?”, Peeves interrupted Fred’s explanation.

  
“Alright. Do you know if it is normal that ghosts can’t be seen for a while? Is this going to get better? You’re such an experienced poltergeist, you must’ve seen many ghosts as they started out, right?”, Fred tried again.

  
“Yes, sure”, Peeves only said, visibly basking in the praise.

  
“So? Will they be able to see us?”, Fred asked again, “Will it get better? Have you ever seen something like this before?”

  
“Nope. The ghosts are much older than the great Peeves”, Peeves shouted and then left them alone again, disappearing through the wall.

  
Fred sighed, annoyed, and George floated to him, laid his hand on his shoulder and huffed.

  
“At least this is possible”, Fred said and pointed at George’s hand, “It’s really not only slapping you. How could we survive without a hug here and there?”

  
George nodded and smiled. They would get through this, they had gotten through everything until now – And they were already dead. What else could happen to them?

 

The next few days were the longest Fred and George could remember experiencing. They weren’t able to do anything but stalking the kids and watching the classes. They had nobody to talk to – except for each other – because Peeves hadn't shown himself to them again.

  
The lessons were as boring as always, there were new teachers for Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts, but they weren’t any better than the ones they had had in their own time. Well, Potions probably was a different story.

  
Severus Snape had died in the battle of Hogwarts. So, since Snape had been the worst teacher Hogwarts could have – Fred and George hadn't personally met the Carrows, but while they seemed to be even worse judging from Ginny's tales, they just didn’t count them – the Potions teacher was better than him. It was a man in his mid-thirties, or at least he looked like that and Fred and George couldn’t possibly remember his name. At least they weren’t the only ones, most of the students just called him ‘Professor’ because they had the same problem. At least the teacher seemed to have fun, although his lessons were mostly very similar to Professor Binns’ History of Magic lessons. Fred and George hated them, so they much rather watched Professor McGonagall in Transformation or Professor Flitwick in Charms. Hagrid’s lessons were alright, too, although he had become a lot calmer and the animals less dangerous. The lessons actually looked like lessons, so they weren’t as cool anymore. Besides, they had only seen them out of the windows on the first floor.

  
The war between Gryffindor and Slytherin had also cooled down a lot, there even were some friendships between both houses and it seemed almost the same as it was with Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. Boring, in Fred and George’s opinion. They had always liked to have someone to prank and really – That Slytherin and Gryffindor were enemies was history! It had been like that forever, so Hogwarts had lost some of it’s feeling through this.

Ginny seemed to get a little better every day, she had started talking to her friends again and was trying harder in her classes. Fred and George were really relieved that she was handling it. Losing two brothers at once couldn't have been easy and she had always liked the twins best out of her brothers, although Fred and George couldn’t ever tell why. They had always found Bill much cooler. And actually they still thought so. Charlie was pretty cool, too. Working with dragons was dangerous and quite awesome.  
Percy was so uncool that even Ron couldn’t top it, but Ron had slowly become cooler after he was suddenly being celebrated as a hero of war. Well, and now he was training to become an auror with Harry.

  
And Ginny had always been the baby. Well, she was the smallest and she was a girl and she had used to be the weakest and now she was the only one left at Hogwarts. The next Weasley child would be the baby Bill and Fleur were having, at least the twins hoped that Fleur wouldn’t want to send the child to Beauxbatons.

Now that they had been ghosts for more than a week and still nobody could see them, they had also noticed that they couldn’t leave Hogwarts. They had first noticed it when they had wanted to watch Hagrid’s lesson with Ginny‘s class, but they hadn't been able to leave the school building. So from then on, they had watched those classes from inside through the windows. To be trapped in the school didn’t make it better and soon both of them were regretting their choice against the comfortable warmth of the door in the nothingness. They wanted nothing more but to leave Hogwarts, be able to sit or lie down and to eat and sleep. Or just feel nothing at all, they had decided one night when they were patrolling the corridors again. They had even tried to die again in a sprout of desperation but of course that hadn't worked. They didn’t need to breathe anymore, so they couldn’t suffocate themselves or each other. When they had tried to hurt themselves or each other it only lasted for a second and it hadn't bled at all, so that didn’t work either. Jumping off somewhere high wasn’t possible since they were only floating around.. They were really desperately trying to find a way to kill themselves. Pathetic.

“I don’t want to stalk Ginny’s great-grandchildren visiting this school, you know. That would be creepy”, Fred said one night.

George only nodded, he had already thought about that on their first day as ghosts. Now they had been there for 13 days and still no change. At least Peeves came to visit them once in a while so they had someone else to talk to. The poltergeist still seemed to be slightly afraid of them, but at least he didn’t run away anymore.

  
Peeves had told everyone that the Weasley twins were back in Hogwarts as ghosts, but of course nobody had believed him and McGonagall had gotten really angry whenever she had heard him tell it to a student. Fred and George would’ve given everything to have someone else be able to see them, everyone but Peeves, maybe Nick, the Gryffindor ghost. Everybody would believe Nick.

One night, when they were having a conversation with Peeves in a deserted hallway, one of the portraits on the corridor's wall suddenly cried out and pointed a finger at the twins. They looked at the woman sceptically, but she really seemed to look at them and they looked back at her hopefully.

  
“Can you see us?”, Fred asked, a little excited, but the woman didn’t respond. She just scratched her head and shrugged. George sighed, another disappointment. They had had little moments like that more often during the last few days, suddenly portraits had seemed to see them and then they must have disappeared again and the portraits had probably thought that it was just Peeves. It was slowly driving them crazy and it was really depressing to be disappointed so often.

  
Nevertheless, since they were sometimes able to see them after just about a month, they were getting quite confident that the students should be able to see them in another few weeks. They just tried to be as obvious as possible and whenever a portrait looked at them, they waved and shouted and danced. It never worked.


End file.
